In meetings last week, Charter
cable told local governments and their ratepayers to shove it. On August 26,
the Long Beach bandidos will abort local public, educational and governmental
(PEG) access television.

Should you be angry? Well, if you're a Charter victim like me, you are being
deprived of something you've already paid for.

The community television system has been built and operated by the franchise
fee in your cable bills for almost 20 years. Now, Charter wants to charge
you more money to see your own property.

Under federal law, community television stations are owned by the public,
commercial-free and not subject to the whims of big advertisers or the politically
powerful.

Charter Communications
plans to illegally move four channels of analog to the digital tier.

One channel of analog bandwidth accommodates two to 10 channels of
digital programming, depending on the complexity of the streams. High-definition
movies eat up a lot of bandwidth.

A Charter statement quoted on TV-4's Aug. 4, 2008, 11:00 p.m. newscast
said that Charter is doing this to "free up more bandwidth for
high definition channels."

Charter thus gains bandwidth for between 8 and 40 digital channels
by banishing community TV to the digital tier, a net gain of 4 and
as many as 36, depending on content.

Charter VP Marsha Berkbigler, in her first speech to the City of Reno's
Citizens Cable Compliance Committee in Dec. 2002, said each additional
channel is worth $1 million a year to Charter  and that's at
2002 prices.

So
Charter stands to make between
$4 million and $36 million by doing this, unadjusted for inflation.

If Charter's greed stands unchallenged,
in nine days you will have to pay at least an extra five dollars a month forever
to see stations you will continue to fund whether you can view them or not.

Charter is moving channels 13, 15, 16 and 17 to the premium digital tier.
You will need to rent a digital converter box to get them and unless you are
a very adventuresome do-it-yourselfer willing to pick it up, you will also
get stuck with a $29.99 installation fee for the privilege of paying the pirates
their monthly pound of flesh. (This has nothing to do with the converters
necessary next February for conventional TV sets receiving signals through
the air. If your set is cable-ready and you subscribe to only basic or expanded
basic, you will not need a converter box no matter what happens with over-the-air
digital TV.)

"Hold on to your remotes, Washoe County residents!" drips a Charter
mailing to subscribers. "We're making changes to enhance your Charter
experience."

George Carlin, America's puncturer of pompous-ass pronouncements, would utter
all seven dirty words you can't say on television.

Charter's PR spin is that killing
community TV won't matter to many of its 75,000 Washoe County subscribers.

I sent the following memo to KRNV TV-4's Joe Hart last week: "Apparently
you got a dismissive statement from Charter that a mere 10 percent of its
subscribers order only the basic tier. That's both sophistry and subterfuge.
Many more ratepayers subscribe to expanded basic. A lot of them were blackmailed
into doing so when the Telecommunications Act of 1996 allowed cable companies
to redefine basic as they damn well pleased.

"Charter's predecessor immediately moved a lot of good stuff out of basic
and into expanded to force customers to pay more for the same thing. That
dynamic is at work here. After removing public, educational and governmental
(PEG) access, basic will include only over-the-air English and Spanish stations
plus the following: Commercial channel 3; QVC and Home Shopping (undoubtedly
good for open government); C-SPAN1 (CSPAN2 was moved to digital over a year
ago; CSPAN3 has never been provided, although like its predecessors, it was
established as a cable industry sop to congress); TBS; The Weather Channel
and TV Guide.

"All the more to drive viewers at least to the more expensive ($52.99
vs. $19.99 per month) expanded basic tier. Neither basic nor expanded basic
can receive the buried PEG channels without paying extra for the digital converter
box.

"A survey done in another market shows PEG viewing was cut by 88 percent
when moved to the digital tier. I am reliably informed that cable companies
in three other states have lost in court over just this issue," I noted
to Hart.

The motive is obvious: corporate
greed by a now-financially floundering company which was taken public as a
Wall Street stock hype-and-hustle by Microsoft billionaire Paul Allen.

Charter's local dragon lady Marsha Berkbigler told my cable consumer
committee in 2002 that every community channel in this market was worth $1
million a year if shunted toward commercial purposes. Moving the community
channels to the premium tier frees up bandwidth for a dozen new commercial
stations. At 2002 prices, that means Charter can scam an extra $12 million
a year at your expense. And the ripoff very probably violates a bushel of
laws. [EDITOR'S NOTE: See updated figures, above right.]

"Looks like the only recourse is to file suit," I concluded in my
memo to anchorman Hart.

Indeed, that seems to be the only chance weve got to stop this theft.

Even if Reno, Sparks, Carson City, Washoe and Douglas counties decide to go
to court, we ratepayers cannot take the risk that they can or will act promptly.
Legal action must be filed THIS WEEK.

And that means you and me. SNCAT has no legal standing. Only ratepayers and
local governments do and it's too risky to wait for city hall.

An experienced attorney has expressed willingness to help and we can use any
and all additional assistance. Even if we get all legal work donated, there
are still substantial costs involved in fighting these horse thieves. Please
help.

Almost 20 years ago, I served on SNCAT's founding board to save the people's
TV stations from abortion at the hands of local government. Now, we have to
save them all over again.

Calling or writing Charter won't do any good. Corporate HQ in Long Beach has
issued orders to all pirate ships in its fleet.

8-6-2008
FROM LES SMITH, EXECUTIVE DIRECTORSierra
Nevada Community Access Television

Please
send at least ten other people this notice and editorial.

MOVING COMMUNITY ACCESS CHANNELS 
A LOSS OF PUBLIC TRUST

Charter Communications
is moving Reno  13, Sparks  15, public access
 16 and Washoe County  17, will be moved to the
digital tier and beyond the reach of most of their viewers.

Why should that
be important to Charters subscribers or the rest of
the people who dont subscribe to Charter Cable?

The simple answer is that these are your channels, given to
you by federal law. Cable operators are required to provide
public, education and government (PEG) channels as a way of
making public service programming available on the cable system
without having to create public-service programming themselves.
These channels are part of the public trust. They are your
"property," just like the national forest or monuments
in Washington D.C.

Most cable operators, like Charter, dont share the sense
of obligation to the community that their predecessors did.
Cable operators have been railroading laws though state legislatures,
relieving them of having to negotiate franchise agreements
with the local communities. New statewide franchise laws still
require cable operators to provide PEG channels. But, there
is no guarantee of where on the cable spectrum the PEG channels
will go.

The biggest downside to this move is for local government,
community organizations and producers who count on easy and
affordable access for their viewers. Federal law requires
that these channels be easily accessible and available at
the cheapest rate. Moving PEG channels up to the digital tier
adds complexity and difficulty to watching these channels.
And, the cost of the digital box is a huge jump in price over
the basic cable rate.

There is a small, but important core of regular viewers who
will be cut off from PEG channels, because they cant
afford a 25% increase in their cable fees. Moving PEG channels
also effectively puts them out of reach of other PEG viewers,
who cruise the basic cable tier.

Imagine a small, downtown park, surrounded by banks, boutiques,
condos and shops. Parents bring their children to play here,
church groups socialize, government officials meet, community
organizations hold events, buskers perform and families from
all over town come to enjoy the activities. The park has history,
culture and tremendous community value.

Then, a developer convinces the legislature that its
too much trouble dealing with the city on development. Now,
the developer only deals with the state. The new law guarantees
a park, but it doesnt say where it has to be. So, the
developer moves the park to an area five-miles out of town.
And, to facilitate the move, an entrance fee will be charged.
It isnt hard to imagine what would happen to visitation
at the park. And, where will the people who live in town to
meet with government officials, participate in community events
and activities?

The people of the Truckee Meadows wouldnt stand for
a developer perpetrating such a violation of the public trust.
Why should they allow Charter to do the same thing with their
PEG channels?

FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASEPUBLIC CHANNELS TO BE TAKEN AWAY BY CHARTER
CABLE

Contact:
Les Smith
(775) 828-1211
RENO, NV - AUG 4, 2008 - In an apparent move to free-up analog
channels for more lucrative clients, Charter Communications
is moving the public channels up to the digital band, effectively
putting them out of reach for the citizens of the Truckee
Meadows.

"A huge number of people in Reno, Sparks and Washoe County
will no longer have access to the information, programming
and media that was provided for them by federal law,"
said Les Smith, executive director for
Sierra Nevada Community Access Television (SNCAT).

"Unless a wide majority of viewers go out of their way
to buy the digital box and actively search out the public,
education and government (PEG) channels, they will miss the
opportunity to see what their local governments are doing,"
Smith continued.

"They
wont be able to get valuable information about whats
happening in their community or enjoy programming provided
for them by program producers in the community."

"Those who will be most affected right away are the government
channels, Reno channel 13, Sparks channel 15, public access
channel 16 and Washoe County channel 17."

According to Smith, channel 16, the public access channel,
provides media access for community organizations like the
Food Bank of Northern Nevada, Big Brothers, Big Sisters, the
Humane Society and others, who will essentially be cut off
by the move.

This move to put PEG channels onto the digital tier is not
the first time that the cable provider has banished PEG channels
to what Smith refers to as "Cable Siberia."

The educational
channel was placed at channel 200. The channel was originally
designated to be brokered by SNCAT and populated with programming
from the UNR, TMCC and the Washoe County School District.

"TMCC produced programming and put classes on the channel
to start with," said Smith,

"But,
after Charter failed to follow-through with a promise to provide
special digital boxes for students, the audience for channel
200 basically dropped to zero. So, TMCC gave up and they havent
put any new programming on the channel for the last couple
of years."

Smith
predicts that the other PEG channels may share the same fate,
if Charter is allowed to force this move.

According to Charter Communications, PEG programming currently
reaches 75,000 households in the Truckee Meadows. These numbers
will be drastically cut for the government and public channels
if they move to the digital tier.

Currently,
the vast majority of viewership on the analog PEG channels
is incidental, but significant, usually the result of people
surfing the basic cable tier. Both the cities and county indicate
that a high percentage of the people polled in the Truckee
Meadows indicated that they had viewed a public meeting or
program on one of the PEG channels.